Focuses on selected anti-Judaic and antisemitic episodes from ancient antiquity through modern times, paying attention to both antisemitic texts and events. It evaluates competing theoretical frameworks for understanding antisemitism as ethnic, racial, religious and cultural phenomenon. Can antisemitism be understood as part of the history of racism or of other forms of ethnic hatred? Why were Jews so often target of hatred? How did both Jews and antisemites view their relations with each other? How do historians understand them? If there is limited continuity among antisemitic episodes, how can the prevalence and repetitiveness of antisemitism be explained?
